About

Priyank M. Kharge is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian National Congress from the state of Karnataka. Kharge is a first-term member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. In June 2016 Kharge was inducted into the Siddaramaiah led government of Karnataka as a state minister with Independent Charge. Kharge holds the Information Technology and Bio-Technology, Science and Technology Department portfolio in the Government of Karnataka. At age 38, Kharge is the youngest minister to be sworn into the Karnataka Cabinet.

Political life
Priyank Kharge is from the Indian National Congress, Kharge represents Chitapur Assembly Constituency of Gulbarga district, Karnataka. Priyank Kharge entered politics as a Student activist of the National Students' Union of India. He rose through the ranks of the cadres as a student activist, NSUI member, State Secretary in charge of Bengaluru City. He progressively moved on to Youth Congress as a member, before becoming the Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress Secretary under Sri. Dinesh Gundu Rao, who was the KPYCC President. After a couple of years stint as Secretary, Priyank Kharge was promoted as General Secretary in KPYCC and served 3 Presidents ( Dinesh Gundu Rao, Sadanand Danganavvar, Krishna Byre Gowda). He was then elected democratically as the Vice President of Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress Committee with Rizwan Arshad as the President.

As a party loyalist and popular amongst the youth,he was picked by INC to fight the Chittapur Assembly bye-elections in 2008 in which he narrowly lost by 1600 votes to the ruling party, BJP. However he remained unfazed and relentlessly campaigned for the people of Chittapur who elected him in the following 2013 Assembly Election by over 30000 votes, beating Valmiki Nayak of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Since his election as Member Legislative Assembly, he has been considered as one of the most progressive politicians of the Hyderabad Karnataka region.

Priyank has also played a very significant role in ensuring the amendment of Article 371 (J) for the people of Hyderabad Karnataka. He has been credited to drafting the proposed amendment before presenting it to the parliament and also credited to its implementation after the bill was passed.

Priyank is considered a rare breed of second generation politicians who have come up the ranks of the party right from the bottom of the pyramid. His commitment, conviction and passion for the party is exemplified by the fact that he is considered an absolute worker from the grassroots.

Kharge has a Diploma in Computer Science.

Ministry
Besides holding the Information Technology and Bio-Technology, Science and Technology Department portfolio Tourism is also the Tourism Department with Independent Charge. As the Tourism minister Kharge announced a science circuit, Bengaluru Tourism Advisory Committee, Hyderabad-Karnataka Tourism Advisory Committee, the coastal circuit and the Cauvery circuit to boost Tourism in the state. [4] As the Information Technology Minister, Kharge has introduced a Startup Booster Kit which has facilities like access to mentors, cloud credits and incubators. In 2017 he started Bengaluru Tech Summit to boost the tech industry. Dr. Somdutta Singh from Nasscom actively works with the ministry on this front.